Entire vintage destroyed from Burgundy clos

(TDB) - Hail damage has ensured that not a single drop of wine is to be produced from one of Beaune’s most important premier cru vineyards in 2013.

The Clos des Mouches vineyard, which covers 25.18 hectares in Beaune and is famed for the quality of its white Burgundy, was so badly hit by hail in last July’s storms that no wine is to be made from the premier cru plot in 2013, according to Chanson’s head of winemaking, Jean-Pierre Confuron. Chanson is the second largest land owner in the Clos des Mouches, with a 4.5ha holding, a little less than Drouhin, which owns 6.82 ha, while the rest of the plot is divided between the Hopsices de Beaune and a couple of other growers. Confuron confirmed in a discussion with the drinks business at a dinner last night that none of the other land owners in the clos would be able to produce wine from the vintage, which saw hail hit the northern Côte de Beaune on 23 July, causing particular damage to vines in Savigny-les-Beaune, Pommard and Volnay, and especially mid-slope premier cru plots. As reported by db at the time, some estates in Beaune lost 90% of their crop, and Beaune-based winemaker Jean Yves Devevey described the hailstones as “the size of marbles and ping-pong balls”. Meanwhile, speaking about the wines from the previous harvest, which Chanson showed to UK press yesterday, Gilles de Courcel, director of Domaine Chanson expressed his delight at the quality of reds in particular. “I believe we have a wonderful vintage in 2012 in both the whites and the reds, and probably more with the reds because they have a very good structure and balance,” he said, attributing the structural quality of the Pinot Noirs to small berries with thick skins.